Facilitating identification of items to make available for sale to users

ABSTRACT

Techniques are described for facilitating transactions involving items and users in various ways. In some situations, item transactions are coordinated by an automated Item Transaction (or “IT”) system provided via one or more computing systems, such that users of the IT system who have available items are matched with other users of the IT system who desire those items. The types of items being involved in transactions via the IT system may vary, and in some situations may include items such as music CDs, video DVDs, computer games, computer software, etc. The operation of the IT system may be enhanced in various ways via interactions with one or more external item marketplaces, such as by automatically obtaining and using information related to users of the IT system from those marketplaces, and/or by acquiring additional items from those marketplaces for use by the IT system.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/618,375, filed concurrently and entitled “Facilitating TransactionsInvolving Buying Items From And Selling Items To Users,” which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The following disclosure relates generally to facilitating transactionsinvolving buying items from users and selling items to users, such as toassist users participating in an item transaction system.

BACKGROUND

The Internet comprises a vast number of computers and computer networksthat are interconnected through communication links, with access toinformation being provided using various services such as electronicmail (“email”) and the World Wide Web (also referred to as the “Web”).In addition to providing access to information, the Web has increasinglybecome a medium that is used to search for, shop for and order items(such as products, services and/or information) that are for purchase,rent, lease, license, trade, evaluation, sampling, subscription to, etc.In many circumstances, a user can visit the Web site of a Web merchant(or a “Web store”) or otherwise interact with an online retailer orelectronic marketplace that provides one or more items, such as to viewinformation about the items, give an instruction to place an order forone or more items, and provide information needed to complete thepurchase (e.g., payment and shipping information). The Web merchant thenfulfills the order by providing the ordered items to the indicatedrecipient, such as by providing product items that have been orderedthrough physical distribution channels (e.g., shipment via agovernmental postal service or private common carrier) or electronically(e.g., via download over the Internet, such as for digital music orvideos) as appropriate. Ordered service items may similarly be providedelectronically (e.g., providing email service) or physically (e.g.,performing cleaning services at the purchaser's house).

Some Web sites have arisen that allow users to sell and purchase itemsto and from each other, such as DVD movies, audio CDs, or video games. Auser will typically register to become a customer by entering personalinformation, such as the user's name, mailing address and paymentinformation. Once registered, the customer can interact with othercustomers to provide or receive items. For example, a customer may beable to specify items that (s)he would like to receive from othersand/or items that (s)he is willing to provide to others. When a matchbetween two customers is made for a particular item, the customer whohas the item provides it to the other customer who would like to receiveit, typically based on some form of compensation given to the customerproviding the item (e.g., monetary payment, “points” or other form ofcredit tracked by the Web site, etc.). Similarly, the customer whoreceives an item typically provides some form of compensation forreceiving the item. Matches may be made automatically (e.g., by matchingcustomers who would like to provide and receive the same item) ordirectly by the customers (e.g., by one of the customers searching forand identifying another customer with whom to participate in an itemtransaction). The operator of such a Web site may in some cases obtainrevenue in various ways, such as by charging a fee for each itemtransaction, by charging a fee for membership, etc.

However, various problems exist with such Web sites for facilitatingtransactions involving items and users. One such problem results fromfrequent imbalances between demand and supply for at least certain typesof items, resulting in significant customer dissatisfaction and loss ofcustomer goodwill. For example, items that are new or otherwise highlypopular will typically have demand that greatly exceeds supply, sincefew if any customers will have item copies that they are willing toprovide to others. Such supply imbalances will typically prevent mostcustomers who desire such an item from obtaining a copy in a timelymanner (or at all). Another problem relates to attracting and retainingcustomers, such as due to difficulties in interacting with the Web site.For example, a new customer may need to enter large amounts ofinformation in order to register for or effectively use suchcapabilities of such a Web site (e.g., to specify items that thecustomer is willing to provide and that the customer desires to obtain),but such information specification is typically burdensome. To specifyitems to be made available to others, for example, a customer may needto inventory his/her collection of items to identify appropriate items,and then manually enter a large amount of information for each item(e.g., an item name or title, data format, storage medium, condition,the number of copies of the item owned by the user, a photo, etc.).Faced with these problems, many potential customers may choose not toparticipate, thus potentially exacerbating the supply shortage problemdescribed above, as those potential customers who have the most items tomake available may be the least willing to participate in the burdensomeitem specification process.

Thus, it would be beneficial to provide techniques to facilitatetransactions involving items and users, as well as to provide otherbenefits.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example embodiment of an item transaction systemcapable of interacting with customers to provide the describedtechniques.

FIGS. 2A-2E illustrate examples of facilitating transactions involvingitems and users of an item transaction system by determining when tomake additional items available to users.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of facilitating transactions involvingitems and users of an item transaction system by assisting users inspecifying information related to items.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a computing system suitable forexecuting an example embodiment of an item transaction system to providethe described techniques.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an example embodiment of a CustomerRegistration Manager routine.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an example embodiment of an InjectionManager routine.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an example embodiment of a TransactionManager routine.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Techniques are described for facilitating transactions involving itemsand users in various ways. In some embodiments, the item transactionsare coordinated by an automated Item Transaction (or “IT”) systemprovided via one or more computing systems, such that users of the ITsystem who have available items are matched with other users of the ITsystem who desire those items. Item transactions involving the items maythen occur via the IT system, such as for the IT system to engage in apurchase transaction to purchase an item from a user who has the itemavailable and to engage in a sales transaction to sell the purchaseditem to the matched user who desires the item. When referring herein toa transaction via the IT system involving an item and one or more users,the transaction is defined as including one or both of the following:(1) the IT system purchases or buys the item from a first user; and (2)the IT system sells the item to a second user. The types of itemsinvolved in transactions via the IT system may vary, and in someembodiments may include items such as music CDs, video DVDs, computergames, computer software, etc. In at least some embodiments, theoperation of the IT system is enhanced in various ways via interactionswith one or more external item marketplaces, such as by automaticallyobtaining and using information related to users of the IT system fromthose marketplaces, and/or by acquiring additional items from thosemarketplaces for use by the IT system. Additional details related tointeractions with external item marketplaces are described below.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an environment in which an embodimentof the IT system may operate, which in this example is illustrated as anItem Transaction System 110 executing on one or more computing systems(not shown). The Item Transaction System 110 facilitates transactionsinvolving items and users who are customers of the Item TransactionSystem, and in particular facilitates transactions in which items aresent from various item-providing customers 170 to various item-receivingcustomers 160. For example, after an item-receiving customer makes arequest to the Item Transaction System for a copy of an indicated item,the Item Transaction System determines whether one or moreitem-providing customers have indicated that they have a copy of therequested item available. If so, the Item Transaction System in thisexample purchases a copy of the item from one of those item-providingcustomers, sells a copy of the item to the item-receiving customer, andsends directions to that item-providing customer to send the item copyto the requesting item-receiving customer. In some embodiments, the ItemTransaction System may first verify that the item-providing customer iswilling to sell the copy of the item. For example, if multiple customersare able to sell a copy of the item, the Item Transaction System mayindicate the opportunity to sell the item to some or all of theitem-providing customers who are able to sell a copy of the item (e.g.,along with timing-related or other constraints regarding how and/or whenthe item is to be sent to the requesting customer). After one of theitem-providing customers agrees to sell a copy of the item to therequesting customer (e.g., the first one that agrees), the ItemTransaction System would then send directions to that item-providingcustomer to send a copy of the item to the requesting item-receivingcustomer. The sending of the items between customers may occur invarious ways, such as via a direct transport 180 between the customers(e.g., via the postal service, a private delivery company, physicalmeeting of the customers, etc.), or instead with the Item TransactionSystem or another entity acting as an intermediary (not shown).

The Item Transaction System may also perform various other actions, suchas tracking and using various information about the customers and theiractivities. For example, the Item Transaction System may track current“points” or other credits provided by the Item Transaction System, suchas points that are credited by the Item Transaction System to customerswho sell items and that are debited by the Item Transaction System fromcustomers who buy items. In addition, while illustrated here as separategroups for the sake of clarity, it will be appreciated that at leastsome of the customers of the Item Transaction System may be bothitem-providing customers and item-receiving customers, such as fordifferent items and by interacting with different other customers.Furthermore, the customers 160 and 170 may interact with the ItemTransaction System and optionally each other in various ways (notshown), such as via a Web site provided by the Item Transaction Systemand/or by using other electronic communications methods (e.g., email,telephone, text messaging, instant messaging, SMS, MMS, etc.).

In this example, the Item Transaction System 110 is operated by anexample Merchant MMM as one of the merchant's systems 120, and iselectronically interacting with other affiliated systems that may alsooptionally be operated by Merchant MMM. In particular, the other systemsin this example include a new item marketplace 130 that sells new itemsof one or more types to customers (e.g., via a Web store or otherelectronic marketplace), a used item marketplace 140 that sells useditems of one or more types to customers (e.g., via a Web store or otherelectronic marketplace), and a payment processing service 150 thatprocesses indicated payments on request. While not illustrated here, atleast some of the customers of the new and used item marketplaces mayinclude at least some of the customers 160 and 170 of the ItemTransaction System, and thus those marketplaces may have variousinformation about prior interactions of those customers with themarketplaces. In addition, at least some of the items involved intransactions via the Item Transaction System may also be sold orotherwise provided via one or more of the marketplaces, and thus themarketplaces may have a variety of information about such items(including a current price for a new copy and/or a used copy of aparticular item).

In some embodiments, the Item Transaction System may charge atransaction fee to customers under certain circumstances, such as toeach customer who receives an item through the Item Transaction System(e.g., in addition to points or other credits that are debited from thecustomer receiving the item). If so, the Item Transaction Systeminteracts with the payment processing service 150 in this example toobtain the appropriate transaction fees from the customers, including toobtain pre-paid transactions fees in certain circumstances as discussedin greater detail below. In some embodiments, the customers may havepreviously interacted with the Item Transaction System (e.g., during acustomer registration process) to specify one or more fee paymentmechanisms that the payment processing service is directed to use, suchas a credit card, bank account, or other source of funds. In addition,systems such as the new item marketplace 130 and the used itemmarketplace 140 may each take various forms in various embodiments, suchas physical brick-and-mortar stores operated by retailers, physical orelectronic auction sites, etc. In other embodiments, various of thesystems may operate in other manners, such as if the new itemmarketplace 130 and the used item marketplace 140 are part of a singlemarketplace that sells both new and used items, if one or more of thenew item marketplace 130, used item marketplace 140 and paymentprocessing service 150 are third-party systems operated by otherentities unrelated to Merchant MMM, and/or if other additionalitem-providing systems are present.

As previously noted, information obtained from one or more systemsexternal to the Item Transaction System may be used to facilitate itemtransactions between customers of the Item Transaction System in variousways. In particular, in this example, information may be obtained fromthe new item marketplace 130 and/or the used item marketplace 140 aboutprior interactions of the Item Transaction System customers with thosemarketplaces and/or about current information about items of interest.For example, information about prior interactions of customers involvingpurchasing, receiving and/or otherwise interacting with items via themarketplaces may be used to assist the customers in identifying items topotentially make available for transactions via the Item TransactionSystem, such as to track items that a customer has received from theitem marketplaces for use as possible items that the customer may makeavailable to provide via the Item Transaction System, and/or torecommend items that a customer may desire to receive via the ItemTransaction System based on other prior item interactions. Informationabout current new and/or used prices for items may also be used invarious ways, including to assist in valuing items involved intransactions via the Item Transaction System (e.g., by tracking itemvalues in monetary units and/or via “points” or other credits issued bythe Item Transaction System). Furthermore, if demand exceeds supply forone or more items via the Item Transaction System, the Item TransactionSystem may in some circumstances automatically decide to acquireadditional copies of those items for use in the Item Transaction System,such as by acquiring those additional item copies from the used itemmarketplace 140 and/or item marketplace 130. Additional details relatedto such interactions with external marketplaces are included below.

For illustrative purposes, some embodiments are described below in whichspecific types of items are involved in transactions between users inspecific ways, and in which an item transaction system facilitates suchitem transactions in various ways. However, it will be appreciated thatthe described techniques may be used in a wide variety of othersituations, including with other types of items, and that the inventionis not limited to the exemplary details provided.

FIGS. 2A-2E illustrate examples of facilitating transactions involvingitems and customers of the IT system by determining when to makeadditional items available to customers. In particular, FIG. 2Aillustrates various example information about customers of an embodimentof the IT system and about items included in transactions involving thecustomers, FIG. 2B illustrates various illustrative information that maybe used by the IT system to determine whether to add (or “inject”)additional supply of an item into the IT system, and FIG. 2C illustratesadditional information about interactions of the IT system customerswith other item marketplaces. For example, FIG. 2A illustrates an itemdatabase 220 used by the IT system to track items involved intransactions via the IT system, with each of the rows 221-224representing a distinct item. Various information is illustrated foreach item in this example, including a name, unique identifier (“ID”),item type, item release date, the total cumulative number of requestsfor the item by customers (e.g., by a customer adding the item to adesired items list for the customer), and the total cumulative number ofoffers of the item by customers as being available to other customers(e.g., by a customer adding the item to an available items list for thecustomer). For example, item WWW is shown in entry 221, and has had 103Total Desired Listings and 20 Total Available Listings. As such, thedemand for this item has greatly exceeded supply, such that a largemajority of the customers who have requested the item have not had amatching customer that is willing to provide the item. The other exampleitems XXX, YYY and ZZZ shown in entries 222-224 have had varying degreesof demand and supply, with the demand and supply for item YYY in row 223being roughly equal, the demand greatly exceeding supply for item XXX inrow 222, and the supply greatly exceeding demand for item ZZZ in row224.

In some embodiments, a decision to inject additional supply of an itemmay be based at least in part on demand for the item exceeding supply,such as by at least a minimum predetermined threshold. The ItemInjection Decision Information 230 in FIG. 2B illustrates a summary ofat least some of the types of information that may be considered whendetermining whether to inject additional item supply in variousembodiments. In particular, each of the rows 231-234 represent adistinct item, and in this example represent the same items previouslyshown in rows 221-224 of the item database 220. Various information isillustrated for each item in this example, including a name, informationabout projected future supply and demand for an item (e.g., for a futureperiod of time of interest), estimated total future revenue that will bereceived by the IT system for each copy of the item that is injectedinto the IT system (e.g., for up to an indicated number of item copies),and a monetary equivalent of other estimated future benefits receivedfor each copy of the item that is injected into the IT system (e.g., forup to an indicated number of item copies). For example, row 231 for itemWWW shows 312 projected future desired listings and 214 projected futureavailability listings, indicating that supply is expected to continue toexceed demand for the item for the period of time reflected in theprojections. Projecting future demand and supply for an item may beperformed in various ways in various embodiments, as discussed ingreater detail below, including based on current supply and demand,information about the type of item, and information about how long theitem has been released or other available. Similarly, estimating totalfuture revenue and other benefits for an injected item copy may beperformed in various ways in various embodiments, as discussed ingreater detail below, including based on an estimate on how many timeseach injected copy will be included in transactions involving customers(e.g., based on projected future supply and demand for the item, anexpected useful life of the item, a type of the item, a likelihood thata customer receiving the item will retain the item or later make theitem available for additional transactions, etc.), on an increase incustomer goodwill that will result from one or more expected futuretransactions involving each injected item copy, etc.

In some embodiments, a decision regarding whether to inject additionalsupply of an item may further be based on information related to thecost of acquisition of copies of the item, such as if the injectiondecision is based in part or in whole on the expected profitability ofthe injection. Example information related to the cost of acquiringitems is shown in the Item Acquisition Cost Database 240 of FIG. 2B. Inparticular, each of the rows 241-243 represent a distinct item, and inthis example represent the same items previously shown in rows 221-223of the item database 220 and rows 231-233 of the item injection decisioninformation 230. Various information is illustrated for each item in thedatabase 240 in this example, including a name and information about aprice or other cost of acquisition of the item (e.g., a price and anyadditional fees, such as for shipping, handling, taxes, etc.) from eachof one or more sources. For example, entry 241 for item WWW indicatesthat a current price per copy to acquire the item from an example UsedItem Marketplace A is $1.50, from an example Used Item Marketplace B is$1.75, from an example New Item Marketplace C is $10.20, and from anexample Auction Site D is $3.02. In this example, the possible sourcesof items may be of various types (e.g., with sources for used itemsincluding used item marketplaces and auction sites, and with sources fornew items including new item marketplaces and optionally auction sites),and may or may not be affiliated with the IT system by having apre-existing relationship of one or more types (e.g., being operated bythe same merchant or other entity, having contractual agreements toshare data and/or to provide each other with certain types offunctionality or other benefits, etc.).

Using the example item injection decision information and itemacquisition cost information, decisions may be made regarding whether toinject additional copies of items in various ways. For example, row 231of the item injection decision information 230 indicates that theestimated total revenue per injected copy of item WWW is $2.05, and theitem acquisition cost information indicates that copies of the item maybe acquired for as low as $1.50 per copy. Based on this information, itmay be profitable to acquire copies of item WWW from Used Marketplace A(or from Used Marketplace B) and inject them into the IT system, sincethe cost to acquire a copy of the item is less than the revenue to beexpected from the item copy when injected. The number of copies of itemWWW to acquire and inject may be determined in various ways in variousembodiments, as discussed in greater detail below, such as based ondifferences between current demand and supply and/or between projectedfuture demand and supply.

Another example of an item injection decision determination may beprovided with respect to item XXX, as reflected in entries 222, 242 and232 of the item database 220, item cost acquisitions database 240, anditem injection decision information 230, respectively. In this case, theestimated total revenue per injected copy of item XXX is $1.91, but thelowest current item acquisition cost for the item is above that estimate(e.g., at $2.23 for the Used Item Marketplace A). Thus, from a pureprofitability perspective, a decision may be made not to injectadditional supply of Item XXX. However, in at least some embodimentsadditional considerations and factors may justify a determination toinject one or more copies of item XXX. For example, a value of otherbenefits from injecting item copies may outweigh the item acquisitioncosts, such as benefits corresponding to increased customer goodwill(e.g., based on acquiring and providing one or more item copies tocustomers generally or to one or more particular customers that desirethe item), increased incentives for new customers to register with theIT system, etc. In this example, when combining an estimated othermonetary benefit of $0.77 per injected copy of item XXX with theexpected total revenue of $1.91 per injected copy of item XXX, theresulting sum of $2.68 does exceed the item acquisition costs of $2.23.Thus, even if not directly profitable to acquire and inject copies ofitem XXX, the additional benefits of injection may warrant the injectionin this case.

Items YYY and ZZZ provide examples of situations in which item injectionmay not be warranted. With respect to item YYY, row 233 of the iteminjection decision information 230 shows the estimated total revenue perinjected copy of the item as $0.61, which is significantly less than thecost to acquire a copy of item YYY from any of the illustrated externalsources. Based on this information, a decision may be made to not injectany copies of item YYY into the IT system. Furthermore, even if it wouldbe profitable to inject one or more item copies in this situation, adecision to not inject item copies may be made in some embodiments,since current and future demand does not exceed current and futuresupply of the item by a sufficient amount (e.g., such as if the ITsystem avoids competing with customers to supply item copies tocustomers who desire them). In other embodiments, items may be injectedif believed to be profitable regardless of supply and demand. Withrespect to Item ZZZ, row 224 of the item database 220 indicates thatsupply greatly exceeds demand, and row 234 of the item injectiondecision information 230 similarly indicates that projected futuresupply will greatly exceed projected future demand. Accordingly, thedecision may be made to not inject additional supply of item ZZZ intothe IT system due to the relatively high supply.

FIG. 2D graphically illustrates an example of how demand and supplywithin the IT system for an item may vary over time. In this example,demand 281 for a popular newly released item within the IT system mayincrease rapidly after the item's release or other initial availabilitytime 284, and then peak and gradually decrease over time, as shown ingraph 280. While the specific details of demand will vary with item typeand particular item, an example of an amount of time represented alongthe x-axis may be several days, weeks, or months. The figure alsoillustrates an example supply 283 of the item within the IT system basedsolely on customers of the IT system making the item available fortransactions via the IT system, which in this example increases slowlyover time after the item's release time (e.g., due to few customershaving the item initially, and typically retaining the newly acquireditem for a period of time before making it available via the IT system).In this example, the supply 283 does not meet the demand for the itemuntil time B, with significant unmet demand before that time (e.g., muchof the demand may eventually disappear even if customers who desire theitem do not receive it, such as due to eventually losing interest amidincreasing frustration over the lack of item availability). However, ifan additional supply of the item is injected into the IT system at ornear the time of item release, the supply with injection 282 not onlymeets the demand at a time A earlier than time B, but also meets muchmore of the demand. This may be true even if the number of item copiesinjected is small, as each item copy may be involved in transactionsmultiple times before time A (e.g., from the IT system to a firstreceiving customer, later from the first customer to a second receivingcustomer, etc.). Additional details related to one example of techniquesfor acquiring item copies soon after their release, such as for use ininjection, are included in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/504,157),filed Aug. 15, 2006 and entitled “Facilitating A Supply Of Used Items,”which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIG. 2E graphically illustrates an example of cost-related factors overtime that may be used by the IT system to decide whether to injectadditional supply of an item into the IT system, such as a newlyreleased item. Example acquisition costs 291 for a copy of an item overtime are illustrated in graph 290, and in particular in this examplereflect the total costs of acquiring and injecting the item copy intothe IT system (e.g., to optionally include any internal processing costsof the IT system). In this example, the acquisition costs are greatestat the release time 293 of the item, and decrease over time afterrelease time (e.g., to reflect that the price for a new copy of the itemdrops quickly, and/or that used copies of the item soon become availableat significantly lower costs). While the specific details of price overtime will vary with item type and particular item, an example of anamount of time represented along the x-axis may be several days, weeks,or months. An example of the projected total future net revenue 292 tobe generated by the IT system for a copy of the item injected into theIT system is also illustrated. This total future net revenue may beinfluenced by various factors such as the estimated number of times thata particular injected item copy is expected to be involved intransactions between customers of the IT system, a transaction fee thatmay be collected by the operator of the IT system for each itemtransaction, and other revenue or costs over time associated with theitem injection (e.g., additional advertising revenue gained related toadditional item transactions). In this example, the total projectedfuture net revenue per copy 292 is greatest at the release time 294 forthe item, and decreases over time after release time. This may reflect,for example, that item copies injected near the release time may beinvolved in transactions more times than item copies later injected(e.g., due to demand at that time exceeding supply) and/or may havehigher value for the IT system when initially released. However, whilethe projected revenue may be highest at item release time, expected itemcopy acquisition costs may also be highest at this time, and in thisexample exceed the projected revenue at the time of item release. Thus,if the IT system is determining to inject additional supply of an itembased on whether it will be profitable, the IT system may wait until atleast time X to initiate such injection, at which time the injection isexpected to be until time Y (e.g., due to the acquisition costs for useditem copies at that time being sufficiently low to allow the item copyinjection to be profitable).

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of facilitating transactions involvingitems and customers of the IT system by assisting customers inspecifying information to the IT system about items, such as to assistcustomers in identifying items that are available for transactionsinvolving other customers. In particular, FIG. 3 illustrates an exampleuser interface page or screen (e.g., a Web page) displayed to an examplecustomer that is pre-populated with various information about itemsbased on information obtained from prior interactions of the customerwith one or more item marketplaces distinct from the IT system. In thisexample, information about prior customer interactions that may be usedincludes example information shown in the marketplace C purchasedatabase 250 and marketplace A purchase database 260 of FIG. 2C. Suchinformation may be obtained and used for each of one or more customersat various times (e.g., when the customer is initially registering withthe IT system, periodically after initial registration, upon customerrequest, etc.) in order to assist the customer in various ways.

In this example, the user interface 300 of FIG. 3 is provided to examplecustomer CCC when he/she is a new customer registering with the ITsystem or has recently performed such registration. Row 213 of thecustomer database 210 of FIG. 2A illustrates that at a time recentlyafter having joined the IT system, the customer has previously provided1 item to another IT system customer as part of an item transaction, andhas not yet received any items from other IT system customers. In thisexample, as part of the registration process for Customer CCC, the ITsystem attempts to retrieve information from one or more external itemmarketplaces or other sources (e.g., credit card processing or otherpayment processing systems, shipping or delivery company systems, etc.)indicating items previously received by the customer, such as itemspreviously purchased by the customer for him/herself and itemspreviously purchased by others for the customer (e.g., as gifts).Example item purchase information is shown in the purchase database 250of FIG. 2C for affiliated Marketplace C that sells new items, and in thepurchase database 260 in FIG. 2C for affiliated Marketplace A that sellsused items. In this example, rows 251, 252, 261 and 262 indicate fouritems that Customer CCC has previously received (those being items YYY,NNN, FFF and RRR), with three of the items being self-purchases. Thus,some or all of these items may be identified as items that Customer CCChas available to provide to other IT system customers, such as for itemsof certain types, items acquired within a specified time period (e.g.,within the last year, or at least one month ago).

Accordingly, the example user interface of FIG. 3 includes informationabout these previously acquired items. In particular, this example userinterface contains an instructions section 310, an Available Item Listsection 320, a section 330 for manually specifying new items to beadded, and controls 342 and 344 in section 340 for accept or cancelingchanges, respectively. In this example, the four identified items thatCustomer CCC has previously received have been automatically added tothe customer's available item list in section 320, as indicated inentries 320 a-320 d, such as to recommend those items to Customer CCC aspotential or default available items that may be made available for usein transactions involving others. Each entry has an associated “Remove”user-selectable control that Customer CCC may use to remove the itemfrom the Available Item List, such as if Customer CCC no longer has theitem or would prefer to retain the item at this time. In this manner,the time and effort for Customer CCC to specify items to add to thecustomer's Available Item List is greatly minimized, and in somesituations may involve no actions by the customer (e.g., if all of theautomatically added items are correct, and the customer does not haveany additional items to add).

In this example, Customer CCC may also manually specify additional itemsfor the Available Item List using the user-selectable controls 332, 334,336 and 338 in section 330, such as for items for which the IT systemdid not automatically obtain information or did not automatically selectas a likely item that the customer would like to make available. Even inthis situation, the information specification by the customer may beminimized if the customer is able to specify a unique identifier 334 foran item being added that allows the IT system to automatically retrieverelevant information about the item (e.g., item name, type, releasedate, etc.). Such a unique identifier may, for example, correspond to aunique identifier used by one or more external marketplaces or otherinformation sources (e.g., an affiliated marketplace or other source),and if so, information about the item may be obtained from thosemarketplaces or other information sources using the unique identifier.Thus, relevant information about such an item may be automaticallyretrieved and used if available. Alternatively, the customer maymanually indicate an item name 332 and various other item information(e.g., item type, condition, etc., not shown). After identifying theitem and indicating a number of copies 336, the customer may use theuser-selectable control 338 to add the item to the Available Item List.In other embodiments, however, the user may not be allowed to indicatemore than one copy of an item in the Available Item List. Similarly, insome embodiments a user may not be allowed to request multiple copies ofan item in a desired item list, such as to prevent a small number ofusers from acquiring a large amount of the supply for a particular item.

While not illustrated here, in at least some embodiments varioususer-selectable controls may further be displayed to allow a user tosort, filter or otherwise organize the display of his/her available itemlist in various ways. For example, a user may be provided with controlsto sort items in the available item list by one or more relevancemetrics, such as the following: a value of the items as part oftransactions via the IT system, an amount of time that an item has beenpresent on the available item list, an amount of time that an item hasbeen publicly available, a number of copies of the item that the userhas available, a popularity of the item with the IT system (e.g., basedon a number of prior transactions involving the item, based on a numberof users that currently desire the item, based on a number of otherusers that currently have the item available to provide, etc.), a typeof the item, a name of the item, etc. Moreover, in some embodiments, thedisplay of items on a user's available item list may similarly besorted, filtered or otherwise organized in an automated manner, such asbased on one or more of the relevance metrics mentioned above. Thus, forexample, a user's item available list may be automatically ordered toshow the most popular items on the list first, such as based on currentdemand for the items as indicated by other users' desired item lists. Inaddition, similar user-selectable controls for and/or automatedtechniques may similarly be provided in some embodiments for other typesof information associated with users, including desired item lists.

It will be appreciated that these various sections of the example userinterface shown in FIG. 3 may be omitted or rearranged or adapted invarious ways in other embodiments, and that additional types ofinformation may be added. In addition, in some embodiments suchinformation may be provided to customers in other ways (e.g., via email,instant message, SMS, telephone call, etc.).

In addition, while not illustrated here, in some embodiments the ITsystem may automatically assist each of one or more customers inspecifying information to the IT system about items that the customerdesires to purchase from the IT system. For example, the IT system mayprovide this assistance by automatically retrieving information from oneor more external marketplaces or other information sources that may beused to identify items that may be desired by the customer. Suchinformation may include information about items that the customer hasacquired for him/herself (e.g., to identify similar or complementaryitems), about items that the customer has acquired for others (e.g., toidentify those items and/or similar or complementary items), about itemsin which the customer has expressed an interest (e.g., by adding theitem to a wish list or gift registry, by adding the item to other typesof lists or blogs or other groups of information about items, byreviewing or otherwise commenting favorably on, etc.), etc. For example,the possible item acquisition database 270 of FIG. 2C displays oneexample of information from an affiliated used item marketplace A (e.g.,based on one or more of the types of information above) that the ITsystem may retrieve and use to provide such assistance. More generally,items may be recommended for the customer in a variety of ways based onprior activities of the customer and/or other information about thecustomer, and such recommended items may be used to assist a customer inspecifying information to the IT system about desired items (e.g., byautomatically adding some or all of those items to a desired item listfor the customer, such as for use as default recommendations that thecustomer may remove if the items are not desired). As with the exampleuser interface for specifying available item list information, a userinterface for specifying a desired item list may include a variety oftypes of information and be presented in various ways, including via oneor more Web pages, emails, instant messages, SMS messages, telephonecalls, etc.).

FIG. 4 illustrates an example server computing system 400 that issuitable for executing an embodiment of the Item Transaction system 440.The server computing system includes a CPU 405, various input/output(I/O) components 410, storage 420, and memory 430. The illustrated I/Ocomponents include a display 412, a network connection 414, acomputer-readable media drive 416, and optionally other I/O devices 418(e.g., a keyboard, mouse, etc.). FIG. 4 also illustrates multiple clientcomputing systems 450 which users may use to interact with the ItemTransaction system via a network 470 (e.g., the Internet). The ItemTransaction system may also interact over the network with one or morecomputing systems 460 for one or more external item marketplaces orother external sources of information, such as to retrieve customerand/or item information, and/or to place orders for items being acquiredfor injection.

An embodiment of the Item Transaction system 440 is executing in memory430, and in this example includes a Customer Registration Managercomponent 444, an Injection Manager component 442, and a TransactionManager component 446. The memory 430 may also optionally include one ormore executing item marketplace systems 435 (e.g., affiliated usedand/or new item marketplaces operated by the same entity operating theItem Transaction system) and/or an executing payment processing service437, or may instead interact with other such systems remotely over thenetwork. If present, one or more item marketplace systems may each storevarious information about available items, customers, and completedtransactions in databases (or “dbs”) on storage 420, such as themarketplace item db 422, the customer db 421, and the marketplacetransaction db 423, respectively.

The Customer Registration Manager component 444 interacts with users toprovide various functionality, such as to register users as customersand to allow them to manage their accounts, and may obtain and storevarious customer information in the customer database 421 on storage420. In the illustrated embodiment, if one or more affiliatedmarketplace systems are executing in memory, the Item Transaction systemshares a common customer database with those marketplace systems,although in other embodiments independent customer databases may insteadbe used (and some or all information for users who are common customersfor the multiple systems may be copied between the multiple databases).The Customer Registration Manager may further use various informationfrom external marketplaces to facilitate interactions with customers,such as to assist customers in creating available item lists and desireditem lists, and may store such information in the available iteminformation database 425 and desired item information database 425 onstorage 420, respectively.

The Transaction Manager component 446 provides functionality to allowitem transactions involving customers to occur. In particular, thecomponent identifies customers who desire items and identifies othercustomers who have those items available, so that the TransactionManager component may engage in item transactions to purchase items fromcustomers who have items available and to sell items to customers whodesire items. The purchase and/or sell item transactions of theTransaction Manager component may be initiated in various ways, such asin response to requests from customers who are willing to provide items,in response to requests from customers who desire to receive items,and/or by analyzing desired item lists and available item lists. TheTransaction Manager component may also take various additional actionsto facilitate the purchase and/or sell item transactions, such as byobtaining any corresponding fees and other payments, managing any pointsbeing credited or debited, providing instructions and/or shippingmaterials to enable the item transactions to occur, and tracking theprogress of the item transactions. The component may further in someembodiments facilitate item transactions by taking physical custody ofitems being provided from customers and then providing those items tothe customers who desire to receive them. In performing its operations,the component may access and use information from the available iteminformation database 425 and desired item information database 425, andmay store information regarding item transactions in the IEStransactions database 426 on storage 420.

The Injection Manager component 442 operates to determine when to injectadditional supply of one or more copies of an item into the IT system,and to then perform those item injections by acquiring item copies(e.g., from one or more of the marketplaces 435 or 460 or from otheritem sources) and making them available to customers who desire thoseitem copies. The injection decisions may be based at least in part oninformation from the available item information database 425 and desireditem information database 425 (e.g., to determine demand and supply foritems), item information (e.g., pricing and availability information)from the item database 422 and/or from one or more marketplaces or otheritem sources, customer information from the customer database 421 (e.g.,information related to possible customer goodwill benefits for some orall customers based on item injections), information that is calculatedor retrieved related to expected future revenue from injecting an itemcopy, etc. The component may operate at various times, such asperiodically (e.g., once a day), when requested by the Item Transactionsystem and/or a customer, etc.

It will be appreciated that computer systems 400, 450 and 460 are merelyillustrative and are not intended to limit the scope of the presentinvention. The Item Transaction system may instead be executed bymultiple interacting computing systems or devices, and computing system400 may be connected to other devices that are not illustrated,including through one or more networks such as the Internet or via theWorld Wide Web (“Web”). More generally, a “client” or “server” computingsystem or device may comprise any combination of hardware or softwarethat can interact, including (without limitation) desktop or othercomputers, network devices, PDAs, cellphones, wireless phones, pagers,electronic organizers, Internet appliances, television-based systems(e.g., using set-top boxes and/or personal/digital video recorders), andvarious other consumer products that include appropriateinter-communication capabilities. In addition, the functionalityprovided by the discussed system components may in some embodiments becombined in fewer components or distributed in additional components.Similarly, in some embodiments the functionality of some of thecomponents may not be provided as part of the Item Transaction systemand/or other additional functionality may be available. For example, insome embodiments a system separate from an Item Transaction system mayperform some or all of the described techniques, such as to support oneor more external item transaction systems or other systems (e.g., for afee).

It will also be appreciated that, while various items are discussed orillustrated as being stored in memory or on storage while being used,these items or portions of them can be moved between memory and otherstorage devices for purposes of memory management and data integrity.Alternatively, in other embodiments some or all of the softwarecomponents may execute in memory on another device and communicate withthe illustrated computing system via inter-computer communication. Someor all of the system components and/or data structures may also bestored (e.g., as software instructions or structured data) on acomputer-readable medium, such as a hard disk, a memory, a network, or aportable media article to be read by an appropriate drive or via anappropriate connection. The system components and data structures mayalso be transmitted via generated data signals (e.g., as part of acarrier wave or other analog or digital propagated signal) on a varietyof computer-readable transmission mediums, including wireless-based andwired/cable-based mediums, and can take a variety of forms (e.g., aspart of a single or multiplexed analog signal, or as multiple discretedigital packets or frames). Such computer program products may also takeother forms in other embodiments. Accordingly, the present invention maybe practiced with other computer system configurations.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an example embodiment of a CustomerRegistration Manager routine 500. The routine may be performed by, forexample, execution of the Customer Registration Manager component 444 ofFIG. 4, such as to register users as customers. While not illustratedhere, in other embodiments this or another routine may further allowexisting customers to interact with and manage their accounts, such asto change information about desired and available items.

The routine begins at step 505, where an indication is received of auser who is a potential IT system customer. The routine continues tostep 510 to determine if the user already has an account with one ormore marketplaces that are affiliated with the IT system. If so, thenthe routine continues to step 518 to create a new IT system account forthe user, although in some other embodiments the IT system may insteadshare a user account with the one or more affiliated marketplaces. Theroutine then continues to step 520 to retrieve existing user accountinformation from at least one of the one or more other marketplaceswhere the user already has an account, and to associate that informationwith the new IT system account for the user. The routine then continuesto step 525 to retrieve information indicating prior transactions andother interactions by the user in the one or more other marketplaceswhere the user already has an account, including transactions in whichthe user purchased or otherwise received one or more items. The routinethen continues to step 530 to automatically generate a default list ofavailable items for the user based on the prior transaction informationretrieved in step 525, and in step 535 optionally generates a defaultlist of desired items for the user based on the prior transactioninformation retrieved in step 525. The routine then continues to step540 to display the default available item list and the default desireditem list for use by the new user, such as to allow the user to modifythe lists. While not illustrated here, the routine may further displaysome or all of the retrieved account information (e.g., legal name,contact information, payment-related information, etc.), such as toallow the user to optionally modify that information. The routine thencontinues to step 545 to allow the user to optionally give feedbackrequesting changes to the default available item list and the defaultdesired item list, and modifies those lists as appropriate based on anysuch feedback.

After step 545, the routine continues to step 550 to determine whetherto automatically authorize immediate item transactions by this userbased on information from the user's existing accounts in the one ormore other marketplaces where the user already has an account. Forexample, if valid payment information is available and the user has ahistory of successful payment, the user may be authorized withoutobtaining pre-payment for any transactions fees. If it is determinedthat transactions are authorized, the routine continues to step 555 toactivate the user's IT system account for transactions, and in step 560stores the current information for the user's available item list andthe desired item list in a manner that will enable that information tobe used for item transactions. The routine then proceeds to step 595 todetermine whether to continue, such as based on whether there areindications of additional users who wish to register and becomecustomers of the IT system, or whether the routine will wait to receivesuch indications. If so, the routine returns to step 505, and if notproceeds to step 599 and ends. In some embodiments, the activating of anaccount for transactions may be based on the user agreeing to financialand/or other conditions, such as to pre-pay a specified amount of money(e.g., to pay for a certain number of transactions) and/or signing upfor a subscription for a specified period of time and/or a specifiednumber of transactions. As one example, one type of subscription mayallow an unlimited number of transactions to occur during a particularperiod of time (e.g., a month) for a particular fee. Alternatively, insome embodiments and situations, at least some users may instead pay forat least some transactions on a per-transaction basis, such as at a timeof each transaction. Furthermore, in some circumstances, informationregarding a user's interactions with the IT system may be stored as partof multiple accounts, such as to use one account to correspond to asubscription or other financial status, and to use another account forother information (e.g., lists of available and desired items).

If it was determined instead in step 510 that the user does not alreadyhave an account with one or more affiliated marketplaces, the routinethen proceeds to step 515 to obtain various user information from theuser (e.g., legal name, username, contact information, payment-relatedinformation, etc.) and to create a new account in the IT system for theuser. The routine then continues to step 570 to obtain manuallyspecified information from the user about desired items to add to theuser's desired item list and about available items to add to the user'savailable item list. After step 570, or if it was determined in step 550that transactions by this user were not authorized based on existingaccount information, the routine proceeds to step 575 to attempt toperform activation and verification of the user's IT system account,such as by verifying the payment-related information from the user isvalid, by obtaining payment for one or more pre-paid transaction fees,etc. In some embodiments, this step may also include obtaining paymentfor a subscription plan that will allow a specified number oftransactions under specified circumstances (e.g., allow the user toconduct only a particular number of transactions, to conduct anunlimited number of transactions for a particular period of time, toconduct a particular number of transactions for a particular period oftime, etc.). Further, as previously noted, in some embodiments suchsubscription-related or other payment-related information may be storedin a separate account for a user from other information for the user.The routine then continues to step 580 to determine whether accountverification is successful. If so, the routine continues to step 555,and if not proceeds to step 585 to send an error message. In thisexample embodiment, the customer will not be able to participate in theIT system until their account is activated, and thus the routine doesnot store any available item list information and/or desired item listinformation in a manner that it will be used by the IT system for itemtransactions. The routine then continues to step 595.

It will be appreciated that various of the illustrated types of customerregistration manager functionality may not be used in other embodiments,and that a variety of additional types of functionality may beavailable.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an embodiment of the Injection Managerroutine 600. The routine may be performed by, for example, execution ofthe Injection Manager component 442 of FIG. 4, such as to determine whento inject additional supply of one or more copies of an item into the ITsystem, and to then perform those item injections by acquiring itemcopies.

The routine begins at step 605, where an indication is received to makea decision whether to inject additional supply of one or more items intothe IT system. The routine continues to step 610 to select an item forwhich to make an injection decision, such as a particular item indicatedin step 605, or one of the items that may be involved in transactionsvia the Item Transaction system if no particular items were indicated instep 605. The routine then continues to step 615 to optionally receiveinformation about any prior item transactions for the item, anyunfulfilled requests for the item (e.g., based on the item being on oneor more users' desired item lists), and any available copies of the itemvia the Item Transaction system (e.g., based on the item being on one ormore users' available item lists), although in some embodiments andsituations some or all of this information may not be used. For example,in some embodiments injection decisions are not based on informationabout particular items (and thus information about prior transactionsfor those items may not be used), such as if a decision is made on a ITsystem-wide basis regarding a number of items to acquire and/or anamount of money to spend on item acquisitions, such as to reflectexpected overall profitability or other benefit to be obtained from suchinjections. Such decisions regarding number of items to acquire mayfurther in some embodiments be made specific to particular types ofitems, such as to inject only CDs even if other types of items areinvolved in transactions via the system (e.g., based on those types ofitems being more profitable for transactions). After deciding the totalnumber of items and/or total amount of money to be spent, the decisionas to which items to inject may be made in various ways, including basedon particular items and/or with respect to particular users. Forexample, particular items may be selected based on the amount of demandfor those items relative to supply for those items, without consideringprofitability regarding injections specific to those items. Furthermore,in some embodiments particular items may be selected based on particularusers that desire items, such as to ensure that new users are suppliedwith at least some items that they desire (e.g., by acquiring thoseitems from external sources and providing those acquired injected itemsto those users), to ensure that preferred users (e.g., users that havepaid for premium functionality, that have achieved certain levels oflongevity and/or numbers of transactions, etc.) receive at least someitems, etc. In addition, in some embodiments items may be injected forparticular users regardless of profitability of the items, such as fornew and/or preferred users. In the illustrated embodiment, the routinenext proceeds to step 620 to optionally predict future demand for andsupply of the item in the Item Transaction system based in part oninformation received in step 615. For example, in some embodiments theroutine may make injection determinations without using predicted orprojected future demand and supply (e.g., based on current demand andsupply and/or other factors), or instead may use predicted or projectedfuture demand and supply in addition to one or more other factors.

The routine continues to step 625 to determine whether current and/orfuture demand for the item exceeds current and/or future supply of theitem, such as by more than a threshold amount (e.g., a predeterminednumber of copies, such as based on the type of the item). If so, theroutine proceeds to step 630 to optionally determine the estimatedfuture revenue that may be generated for each copy of the item injectedinto the IT system, although in other embodiments the determination maynot be made based on profitability-related factors and the step may notbe performed. The routine then continues to step 635 to gatherinformation on the availability of the item in one or more other itemmarketplaces, and the cost to acquire copies of the item from such otheritem marketplaces. The routine then continues to step 640 to determinewhether one or more copies of the item can be acquired at a price belowthe estimated future revenue that may be generated from each injecteditem copy. If so, the routine proceeds to step 645 to purchase (orotherwise acquire) one or more item copies for one or more externalmarketplaces or other item sources, and to inject them into the ITsystem (e.g., by directing the marketplace or other item source to sendeach item copy being acquired to an IT system user who desires theitem). After step 645, or if it was determined in step 625 that itemdemand does not exceed item supply by more than a threshold, or in step640 that one or more copies of the item cannot be acquired at a pricebelow the estimated revenue for a copy, the routine proceeds to step 695to determine whether there are more items for which to make an injectiondecision. If so, the routine returns to step 610, and if not proceeds tostep 699 and ends.

It will be appreciated that, in other embodiments, decisions regardingwhen and how to inject item copies may be made in other manners (e.g.,by considering other factors as part of the decisions), that some of thetypes of described functionality may not be used, and/or that a varietyof additional types of functionality may be available (e.g., estimatingthe value of customer goodwill that will be gained if copies of acertain item are injected into the IT system).

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an embodiment of the Transaction Managerroutine 700. The routine may be performed by, for example, execution ofthe Transaction Manager component 446 of FIG. 4, such as to facilitateitem transactions between customers of the IT system. In this exampleembodiment, the routine is initiated by a request from a customer whodesires an item (e.g., by placing the item on the desired item list ofthe customer).

The routine begins at step 705, where an indication is received of oneor more requests made by one or more customers of the IT system of itemsdesired to be received. The routine then continues to step 710 to selecta request to be processed. The routine then continues to step 715 todetermine whether at least one copy of the item requested is availablefrom one or more of the other customers of the IT system. If so, theroutine proceeds to step 717 to identify a particular customer who hasthe item available to participate in the transaction, such as bysoliciting one or more such users regarding their interest inparticipating. After the user is identified, the illustrated embodimentof the routine continues to step 720 to attempt to acquire acorresponding transaction fee for the item transaction from therequesting customer. The routine then continues to step 725 to determinewhether the transaction fees were successfully acquired. If so, theroutine proceeds to step 730 to send shipping instructions to thecustomer identified in step 717 who has a copy of the item available, soas to cause the item to be sent to the requesting customer. In otherembodiments, the routine may instead not attempt to acquire transactionfees before initiating the providing of an item to the user, such as ifthe user will later be billed (e.g., if multiple fees are aggregated andbilled together). The routine continues to step 735 to monitor andconfirm that the request was fulfilled and that the requesting customerreceived a copy of the item. The routine continues to step 740 to updatethe item transaction information (e.g., to create an entry containinginformation about the transaction in the IT system transactions DB 426as shown in FIG. 4, and to update the desired item list and theavailable item list of the customers involved in the item transaction).

After step 740, the routine proceeds to step 790 to determine whetherthere are more item requests to be processed. If so, the routine returnsto step 710 to select the next item request to process, and if notcontinues to step 795 to determine whether to continue. If so, theroutine returns to step 705, and if not proceeds to step 799 and ends.

If in step 715 it is instead determined that no copy of the item isavailable from another customer of the IT system, the routine proceedsto step 745 to inform the requesting customer that there may be a delayin fulfilling the customer's request for the item. In some embodiments,additional steps may be taken, such as to initiate a decision regardingwhether to inject additional copies of the item, to provide informationto the requesting customer regarding alternative ways to acquire a copyof the item (e.g., by providing item acquisition information for one ormore affiliated marketplaces), etc. The routine then continues to step790. If in step 725 it is instead determined that the transaction feesare not successfully acquired from the requesting customer, the routineproceeds to step 750 to send an error message to the customer. Theroutine then continues to step 790 to determine whether there are moreitem requests to be processed.

It will be appreciated that, in other embodiments, some of theillustrated types of functionality may not be provide, and that variousadditional types of functionality may be available.

As previously noted, operation of the IT system may be enhanced invarious ways based on various types of interactions with and informationfrom one or more external marketplaces or other systems. Additionaldetails related to some such operation and interactions are includedbelow. As previously noted, a user who desires to participate in the ITsystem (e.g., to become a new customer of the IT system, if the ITsystem sells or otherwise provides functionality for a fee) may berequested to provide a variety of types of information to enable suchparticipation, and the IT system may further take additional types ofactions to assist such users. For example, the providing of theinformation by a user may include interacting with a Web site providedby the IT system in order to complete an initial registration process.The registration process may involve the IT system obtaining informationabout, for example, the user's name, various contact information (e.g.,home street address, telephone number, email address, etc.), and/ordemographic information (e.g., age). The registration process may alsoinvolve the IT system obtaining various payment-related information forthe new user, such as if users are charged monetary payments in certaincircumstances (e.g., to charge a user who obtains an item from anotheruser a monetary transaction fee, such as to cover costs of shipping orother delivery and/or as part of a fee charged by the IT system forfacilitating the item transaction). Such payment-related information fora user may include information about, for example, one or more creditcards, bank accounts, electronic payment system accounts, etc. During orafter the registration process, the new user may also be prompted tooptionally specify an available item list describing the items that theuser wishes to make available to others via the IT system, and a desireditem list describing the items that the user desires to receive fromother users via the IT system. A variety of other types of informationmay similarly be specified by a user during or after the registrationprocess (e.g., various types of feedback, such as regarding other userswith whom the user conducts item transactions and/or regarding the ITsystem).

In the absence of automatic assistance to specify user information tothe IT system, a new user may spend a significant amount of timemanually specifying each of the types of information mentioned above.However, in at least some embodiments, the IT system may automaticallyassist a user in specifying at least some of types of the informationdescribed above, such as based on prior interactions of the users withone or more item marketplaces separate from the IT system. For example,after receiving an indication related to an identity of a user (e.g., anonline username, full legal name, associated number such as a creditcard number or social security number, etc.), the IT system mayautomatically interact with one or more other item marketplaces in orderto obtain information about prior interactions of the user with thatitem marketplace. Such information obtained from one or more other itemmarketplaces may then be automatically used by the IT system in variousways. For example, the obtained information may include the user's legalname, contact information, demographic information and/orpayment-related information, thus eliminating any requests to the userto supply that information, or instead using the obtained information asdefault information that the use may change only if so desired.Furthermore, the obtained information may include various userpreference information that may be of use to the IT system (e.g.,preferences regarding how much information is displayed together, hownotifications or other types of information are sent to the user, etc.).

As another type of automatic assistance based on information from one ormore item marketplaces, information about a user's assessed reputationor history of interactions with the other item marketplaces may beobtained and used. Such prior interaction history may include varioustypes of actions of interest, such as making payments on time, being auser for a minimum amount of time, having engaged in a minimum amount oftransactions, not having credit card or other payments be rejected, nothaving excessive returns, not having suspected fraudulent transactions,etc. If such reputation or prior interaction history is sufficientlypositive (e.g., by including one or more desired factors, having a scoreabove a predetermined threshold when combined in a weighted manner,etc.), the IT system may immediately authorize the user to engage initem transactions via the IT system, such as without obtainingpre-payment from the user. Alternatively, in the absence of suchsufficiently positive information (or in the presence of sufficientlynegative information), the IT system may instead take one or more of avariety of types of restrictive actions (e.g., requiring that the userpre-pay transaction fees before allowing the user to engage incorresponding transactions to which those fees apply, limiting the typesof transactions in which the user may participate for an initial periodof time, preventing the user from participating in any item transactionsvia the IT system, etc.).

Furthermore, another type of automatic assistance based on informationfrom one or more item marketplaces includes, in at least someembodiments, using information about a user's item purchases and otheritem acquisitions, as well as feedback provided related to items. Suchinformation may be used in various ways, including to automaticallyassist the user in populating an available item list of items that theuser is willing to provide to other users via the IT system. Forexample, information may be obtained about items that the user hasreceived (whether from self-purchases and/or from others), such asduring a prior time period of interest or at any time in the past. Someor all of those items that the user has received may then be recommendedto the user for inclusion on the user's available item list, such as byautomatically adding those items to the available item list as defaultentries that the user may later remove if so desired. Items may beselected for recommendation in various ways, such as to limit therecommended items to those that are of one or more types involved intransactions by the IT system, to select items that are expected to havea high value and/or to be in high demand, to select items for which theuser is believed to have dissatisfaction (e.g., based on explicitfeedback about the items, by later acquiring a newer related item thatmay have replaced the item, etc.), etc. Similarly, information about auser's item acquisitions and/or item feedback may be used in at leastsome embodiments to automatically assist the user in populating adesired item list of items that the user desires to receive from otherusers via the IT system. For example, prior item acquisitions of theuser may be used to recommend additional items that may be of interestto the user, such as similar or complementary items. In addition,various types of user feedback may be used to further make suchrecommendations, such as based on feedback from the user that indicatesthat a type of item or particular item is of particular interest (e.g.,by placing an item on a wish list of the user or other list indicatinginterest, by providing comments related to a type of item that indicatesan interest in that item type, etc.). As with the available item list,recommendations for a desired item list may be provided to a user invarious ways, including by automatically adding the recommended items tothe desired item list as default entries that the user may later removeif so desired. Furthermore, for item marketplaces that are affiliatedwith the IT system, the item marketplace may in some embodimentsexplicitly include functionality to allow users to specify items toinclude on their available item list and/or desired item list for the ITsystem (e.g., by including user-selectable controls when informationabout an item at the item marketplace is displayed or otherwise providedto users who are customers of the IT system, such as a user-selectablecontrol for each of adding the item to the user's available item listand adding the item to the desired item list, or instead user-selectablecontrols to otherwise modify the user's available item list and/ordesired item list for the IT system). If so, any such user-specifiedinformation at the item marketplace may be provided to and used by theIT system, whether by the IT system retrieving the information at one ormore times or by the item marketplace sending the information to the ITsystem.

When using such information from other marketplaces, the othermarketplaces from which the information is obtained may include, forexample, marketplaces that are affiliated with the IT system, such asbased on a pre-existing agreement to share information and/or by beingoperated by a single entity. In addition, in some embodiments, suchinformation retrieval from one or more other item marketplaces may beperformed if approved by the user, such as by requesting the user duringIT system registration to provide user identity informationcorresponding to one or more indicated marketplaces (e.g., a usernameand password used at each indicated marketplace), while in otherembodiments the information retrieval and use may not include suchexplicit user approval.

A variety of types of items may be involved in transactions in variousembodiments of the IT system, such as one or more of CDs, DVDs, computersoftware, video games, books, articles of clothing, shoes, fashionaccessories, photographs, magazines or other printed materials, posters,works of art, furniture, cooking recipes, rare collectibles, electronicsor computer hardware, etc. In some embodiments, the types of items mayinclude any type of item that is offered by one or more affiliatedmarketplaces.

As previously noted, in some embodiments users of the IT system may becharged transactions fees in certain circumstances, and further may insome embodiments receive and provide IT system “points” (or otherprivate transaction currency issued by the IT system or other system) aspart of item transactions. A user of the IT system may in someembodiments purchase additional points (e.g., by payinggovernment-issued monetary currency to the IT system, via credit card,bank account, or other monetary transaction). Furthermore, the IT systemmay in some embodiments allow or require at least some customers topre-pay for some transactions in advance, and may further in someembodiments automatically perform pre-payment for one or moretransactions and/or one or more points under certain circumstances(e.g., if the user's current available number of pre-paid transactionsand/or points is at or below a certain predetermined amount). In someembodiments, the points that a customer expends to receive an item orgains by providing an item may depend on the demand for that item in theIT system, or the value of the item as determined in one or more otherways (e.g., its value in one or more other item marketplaces, auctionsites, or other sources of items). For example, in some embodiments, thepoints for an item may depend on whether the item is categorized as a“new release,” or otherwise on how long the item has been available forpurchase or acquisition by the general public. In some embodiments, anew customer of the IT system may automatically receive a certain numberof points and/or certain number of free transactions. In addition, atransaction fee for an item involved in a transaction may be charged toa user at various times, such as after the item has been sent from aproviding user but before it is received by the receiving user, orinstead after it is received by the receiving user. The IT system mayfurther track item shipments in various ways in some embodiments so thatthe tracking information may be used to determine when to charge atransaction fee.

In addition, in some embodiments, the facilitating of item transactionsbetween users includes automatically making additional copies of one ormore items available to users of the IT system under certaincircumstances (e.g., based on demand for those items by users of the ITsystem exceeding supply of those items from users of the IT system),such as by acquiring copies of those items from one or more itemmarketplaces. In some embodiments, the IT system may automaticallydetermine to inject additional supply of a certain item, in the form ofadditional copies of the certain item, into the IT system based at leastin part on demand from customers for the item exceeding supply of theitem from customers by at least a predetermined amount. Injection of theadditional supply may include acquiring one or more copies of thespecified item from one or more external sources such that each of atleast one of the one or more customers who requested the specified itemis sent one of the acquired copies of the item. In some embodiments, theone or more external sources from which copies of the item to beinjected are to be acquired may include marketplaces for the sale ofused or new items, or auction sites for new or used items. In someembodiments, the operator of the IT system may also operate one or moreof the external sources, such as marketplaces from which copies of theitem to be injected are to be acquired. In some embodiments, the one ormore external sources such as marketplaces may be affiliated with theoperator of the IT system so that the IT system and the one or moreexternal sources may share information with one another. In someembodiments, item injection may further be performed in other manners,including by providing various incentives to current or potentialcustomers to make particular items available (e.g., by providingadditional points for making those items available, by waiving feesand/or providing monetary compensation, etc.).

In some embodiments, the decision to inject additional supply of an iteminto the IT system may be made when the delay in providing a copy of theitem to one or more customers who desire the item exceeds apredetermined length of time, or when such injection is determined to beprofitable to the operator of the IT system. In some embodiments, thedecision may be made to inject supply of an item into the IT systemdespite being unprofitable to the operator of the IT system, such as ifsuch injection will create benefits (e.g., goodwill among the IT systemcustomers or an increased likelihood that prospective customers willregister with the IT system). For example, the IT system may determine amonetary value equivalent of such benefits, and use that value as partof a profitability analysis to decide whether to inject supply of anitem into the IT system. In some embodiments, the operator of the ITsystem may bypass the automated injection process and choose to injectsupply of an item into the IT system regardless of profitability or anyless tangible benefits of injection.

In some embodiments, the IT system may charge some or all users a feethat allows those users to receive a certain predetermined number ofitems without paying any additional transaction fee, or entitles thoseusers to receive items for a certain predetermined period of timewithout paying any additional transaction fee, or entitles those usersto receive items without ever paying any additional transaction fee. Inaddition, in some embodiments, the IT system may provide functionalityto allow one or more users to form themselves into a private communitywithin the IT system so that each of those users can only receive itemsfrom and/or provide items to other users who are part of the sameprivate community, such as based on fees from some or all of thoseusers.

In some embodiments, the IT system functionality may further be used toimplement a rental system, such that some or all users who provide itemsmay eventually receive that item (or another copy of that item) back,such as automatically or upon request of the user. If so, at least someusers who receive a desired item may eventually be requested orinstructed to send that item back to the IT system and/or to the userwho provided the item, such as after the customer has finished using theitem.

Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that in some embodimentsthe functionality provided by the routines discussed above may beprovided in alternative ways, such as being split among more routines orconsolidated into fewer routines. Similarly, in some embodimentsillustrated routines may provide more or less functionality than isdescribed, such as when other illustrated routines instead lack orinclude such functionality respectively, or when the amount offunctionality that is provided is altered. In addition, while variousoperations may be illustrated as being performed in a particular manner(e.g., in serial or in parallel) and/or in a particular order, thoseskilled in the art will appreciate that in other embodiments theoperations may be performed in other orders and in other manners. Thoseskilled in the art will also appreciate that the data structuresdiscussed above may be structured in different manners, such as byhaving a single data structure split into multiple data structures or byhaving multiple data structures consolidated into a single datastructure. Similarly, in some embodiments illustrated data structuresmay store more or less information than is described, such as when otherillustrated data structures instead lack or include such informationrespectively, or when the amount or types of information that is storedis altered.

From the foregoing it will be appreciated that, although specificembodiments have been described herein for purposes of illustration,various modifications may be made without deviating from the spirit andscope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not limited exceptas by the appended claims and the elements recited therein. In addition,while certain aspects of the invention are presented below in certainclaim forms, the inventors contemplate the various aspects of theinvention in any available claim form. For example, while only someaspects of the invention may currently be recited as being embodied in acomputer-readable medium, other aspects may likewise be so embodied.

1. A computer-implemented method for facilitating identification ofitems to make available to customers of an item transaction system, themethod comprising: registering multiple users as customers of the itemtransaction system; for each of at least some of the customers,automatically identifying items for the customer to make available viathe item transaction system, wherein the automatic identifying of theitems for the customer includes: retrieving information indicating itemspreviously purchased by the customer from one or more item marketplacesdistinct from the item transaction system; and automatically adding atleast some of those indicated items to an available item list for thecustomer, wherein the available item list of the customer indicatesitems that are available from the customer via the item transactionsystem, and wherein the automatic adding is performed by one or moreconfigured computing systems of the item transaction system withoutobtaining prior approval of the customer; modifying the available itemlist of one of the at least some customers in response to instructionsreceived from the one customer, the modifying including removing atleast one of the items that was previously purchased by the one customerand automatically added to the available item list; and automaticallyfacilitating item transactions between the item transaction system andcustomers, wherein the facilitating of the item transactions isperformed by the one or more configured computing systems of the itemtransaction system and includes: receiving requests from multiplecustomers that are each for an indicated item that is on the availableitem list of at least one other customer; and responding to each of atleast some of the requests by purchasing the requested item from one ofthe customers whose available item lists include the requested item andproviding instructions to the one customer to send the purchased item tothe customer who made the request.
 2. The method of claim 1 whereinitems made available via the item transaction system are each of one ormore specified item types that include at least one of CDs, DVDs,computer software and video games.
 3. The method of claim 2 wherein theautomatic adding of at least some indicated items previously purchasedby a customer to the available item list of the customer includes addingonly items that are of at least one of the specified item types.
 4. Themethod of claim 2 wherein the automatic identifying of items for one ofthe at least some customers to make available further includesautomatically identifying additional items that were previouslydelivered to the one customer after being purchased from the one or moredistinct item marketplaces by one or more users distinct from the onecustomer, and automatically adding those identified additional items tothe available item list of the one customer.
 5. The method of claim 4wherein the automatic identifying of items for the one customer furtherincludes automatically identifying items that the one customerpreviously designated as being of interest when interacting with the oneor more distinct item marketplaces, and automatically adding thoseidentified items to a desired item list of the one customer.
 6. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the automatic identifying of items for acustomer further includes automatically adding items to a desired itemlist of the customer that are automatically identified as beingrecommended for the customer, each desired item list of a customerindicating items that the customer desires to obtain via the itemtransaction system, and wherein at least some of the received requestsfrom customers for items are based on those customers adding those itemsto desired item lists of the customers.
 7. The method of claim 1 whereinthe facilitating of the item transactions further includes, for eachfirst customer who has an indicated item and is instructed to send theindicated item to a second customer who requested the indicated item,performing a first transaction that includes purchasing the indicateditem from the first customer and performing a second transaction thatincludes selling the purchased item to the second customer, the firstand second transactions including obtaining one or more units of atleast one of a private currency issued by the item transaction systemand a governmental-issued monetary currency from at least one of thefirst and second customers.
 8. The method of claim 1 wherein the one ormore distinct item marketplaces are operated by a business entity whoalso operates the item transaction system, and wherein the methodfurther comprises automatically authorizing one or more of the at leastsome customers to engage in item transactions based at least in part oninformation about interactions between the one or more customers and theone or more distinct item marketplaces.
 9. The method of claim 8 whereinat least one of the one or more distinct item marketplaces is a new itemmarketplace that sells new items.
 10. A computer-implemented method forfacilitating identification of items to be made available to usersinteracting with an item transaction system, the method comprising:automatically identifying items that are potentially available for aproviding user who is interacting with an item transaction system tomake available to receiving users interacting with the item transactionsystem, the automatic identifying of the potentially available itemsbeing based on information about items previously acquired by theproviding user from one or more item marketplaces distinct from the itemtransaction system and being performed by one or more configuredcomputing systems of the item transaction system; without obtainingprior approval of the providing user, automatically adding at least oneof the identified potentially available items to an available item listof the providing user at the item transaction system, the available itemlist of the providing user indicating items that the providing user iswilling to provide to the receiving users, the automatic adding of theat least one items being performed by the one or more configuredcomputing systems of the item transaction system; and after theautomatic adding of the at least one items to the available item list ofthe providing user, indicating the at least one items to the providinguser to enable the providing user to elect to remove one or more of theautomatically added at least one items from the available item list ofthe providing user so that the removed one or more items are notindicated to be willing to be provided to the receiving users by theproviding user.
 11. The method of claim 10 further comprising receivingan indication from each of at least some of multiple providing usersinteracting with the item transaction system of one or more availableitems that the providing user is willing to provide via the itemtransaction system.
 12. The method of claim 11 wherein the providinguser for whom the potentially available items are automaticallyidentified is one of the at least some providing users, and wherein atleast one of the one or more available items indicated by the providinguser is one of the items that were automatically identified as beingpotentially available.
 13. The method of claim 12 wherein the receivedindication of the one or more available items from the providing userfor whom the potentially available items are automatically identifiedincludes a manual description by that providing user of each of one ormore available items other than the at least one automaticallyidentified potentially available items.
 14. The method of claim 11further comprising, for each of multiple indications from one or more ofmultiple receiving users that are each of a desired item, matching thedesired item to one of the available items indicated by one of the atleast some providing users, and initiating one or more transactions thatresult in obtaining the one available item from the one providing userand providing the one available item to the receiving user who indicatedthe desired item.
 15. The method of claim 14 further comprising, beforethe matching of the desired items to the available items, receiving anindication from each of the one or more receiving users of one or moredesired items that the receiving user desires to receive from themultiple providing users.
 16. The method of claim 15 wherein at leastsome of the one or more receiving users who indicate one or more desireditems to receive are also some of the multiple providing users whoindicate one or more available items to make available to other users.17. The method of claim 14 further comprising, for each of one or moreof the initiated one or more transactions that result in obtaining anavailable item from the one providing user for the transaction andproviding the available item to the receiving user for the transaction,under control of the item transaction system, purchasing the availableitem from the one providing user for the transaction and selling thepurchased item to the receiving user for the transaction.
 18. The methodof claim 17 wherein each purchasing of an available item from one of themultiple providing users and selling of the purchased item to one of themultiple receiving users includes directing that one providing user tosend the item directly to that one receiving user, such that the itemtransaction system does not take physical custody of the purchased item.19. The method of claim 14 further comprising, for each of one or moreof the initiations of one or more transactions that result in obtainingan available item from one of the multiple providing users and providingthe available item to one of the multiple receiving users, obtaining atleast one of a monetary transaction fee and one or more units of aprivate currency issued by the item transaction system from at least oneof the one providing user for the transaction and the one receiving userfor the transaction.
 20. The method of claim 10 further comprisingmatching an item desired by a second of the receiving users interactingwith the item transaction system to one of the automatically identifiedpotentially available items, and initiating a transaction that includesproviding the one item from the providing user to the second receivinguser.
 21. The method of claim 10 wherein the indicating to the providinguser of the at least one item as being potentially available includesdisplaying information about the at least one item to the providinguser.
 22. The method of claim 10 wherein the indicating to the providinguser of the at least one item as being potentially available includesautomatically generating a default list of available items for theproviding user, and providing the generated default list of availableitems to the providing user to allow modification of the items includedon the generated default list.
 23. The method of claim 22 furthercomprising receiving an indication from the providing user that affirmsthe generated default list of available items as including availableitems for the providing user.
 24. The method of claim 22 furthercomprising receiving an indication from the providing user of one ormore modifications by the providing user to the generated default list,and updating the available item list of the providing user to reflectthe one or more modifications.
 25. The method of claim 22 furthercomprising, unless the providing user indicates to not use the items onthe generated default list, automatically using the items on thegenerated default list as part of the available item list for theproviding user and determining possible transactions involving providingthe items on the available item list for the providing user to thereceiving users.
 26. The method of claim 10 wherein the providing useris a new user to the item transaction system, and wherein the automaticadding of the at least one items to the available item list of theproviding user is performed as part of an initial configuration of theproviding user to use the item transaction system.
 27. The method ofclaim 10 wherein the automatic identifying of potentially availableitems is performed periodically for each of multiple users.
 28. Themethod of claim 10 wherein the automatic identifying of the items thatare potentially available for the providing user further includesidentifying items that were previously delivered to the providing userafter being purchased from the one or more distinct item marketplaces byone or more other users distinct from the providing user, and whereinthe at least one identified potentially available items that areautomatically added to the available item list of the providing userinclude at least one of those previously delivered items.
 29. The methodof claim 10 further comprising, for each of one or more of the receivingusers interacting with the item transaction system, automaticallyidentifying potentially desired items for the receiving user byobtaining information indicating interactions of the receiving user withone or more item marketplaces distinct from the item transaction system,and recommending one or more items to the receiving user for inclusionon a desired item list for the receiving user based at least in part onthe interactions of the receiving user with the one or more distinctitem marketplaces, the desired item list of the receiving user being foruse in indicating the items that the receiving user desires to receivevia the item transaction system.
 30. The method of claim 29 wherein theinteractions of one of the one or more receiving users with the one ormore distinct item marketplaces include designations by the onereceiving user of items that are of interest, and wherein therecommended one or more items for the one receiving user include thedesignated items.
 31. The method of claim 29 wherein the interactions ofone of the one or more receiving users with the one or more distinctitem marketplaces include purchases by the one receiving user of items,and wherein the recommended one or more items for the one receiving userinclude items that are automatically recommended as being complementaryto the purchased items.
 32. The method of claim 10 wherein the itemsmade available via the item transaction system are each a used item ofone or more specified item types that include at least one of CDs, DVDs,computer software and video games.
 33. The method of claim 32 whereinthe one or more distinct item marketplaces are each a new itemmarketplace.
 34. The method of claim 10 wherein the indicating of the atleast one item to the providing user includes displaying to theproviding user the available item list for the providing user.
 35. Themethod of claim 34 wherein the displayed available item list of theproviding user includes multiple items, and wherein the displaying ofthe available item list to the providing user includes automaticallydisplaying the multiple items in a manner that is sorted to reflectdemand for the items from the receiving users interacting with the itemtransaction system.
 36. The method of claim 34 wherein the displayedavailable item list of the providing user includes multiple items, andwherein the displaying of the available item list to the providing userincludes providing user-selectable controls to allow the providing userto sort the multiple items in multiple manners.
 37. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium whose contents configure a computing device tofacilitate identification of items to be made available to users, byperforming a method comprising: receiving an indication of a first userwho has expressed an interest in interacting with an item transactionsystem; automatically obtaining information about prior activities ofthe first user that include acquiring one or more items from one or moreitem marketplaces; automatically adding one or more determined items toan available item list of the first user at the item transaction systemwithout obtaining any prior indication of the first user to perform theadding of the one or more determined items, the available item list ofthe first user indicating items that the first user makes available toother buying users of the item transaction system, the one or moredetermined items being automatically selected based at least in part onthe obtained information about the prior activities of the first userand including at least one of the acquired items, the automatic addingof the one or more determined items being performed by the configuredcomputing device; and after the automatic adding of the one or moredetermined items to the available item list of the first user,indicating the one or more determined items to the first user to enablethe first user to elect to remove one or more of the automatically addeditems from the available item list of the first user so that the removedone or more items are not available to the buying users from the firstuser.
 38. The computer-readable medium of claim 37 wherein the methodfurther comprises automatically determining the one or more items to beautomatically added to the available item list of the first user,automatically generating a default list of available items for the firstuser that includes the determined one or more items, and providing thegenerated default list of available items to the first user to allowmodification of the items included on the generated default list, theenabling of the first user to elect to remove one or more of theautomatically added items from the available item list of the first userbeing based at least in part on the providing of the generated defaultlist.
 39. The computer-readable medium of claim 38 wherein the methodfurther comprises matching users who desire items to other users whohave those items available.
 40. The computer-readable medium of claim 39wherein the expressed interest of the first user in interacting with theitem transaction system includes an indication from the first user toinitiate registration with the item transaction system, and wherein theautomatic determining of the one or more items is performed as part ofthe registration of the first user with the item transaction system. 41.The computer-readable medium of claim 39 wherein the method furthercomprises receiving an indication from the first user of one or moreavailable items that the first user is willing to provide to the buyingusers, updating the available item list of the first user to include theindicated one or more available items, and using the indicated one ormore available items on the updated available item list as part of thematching of users who desire items when the desired items include theindicated one or more available items.
 42. The computer-readable mediumof claim 41 wherein at least one of the indicated one or more availableitems are not on the generated default list of available items, andwherein the method further comprises interacting with at least one ofthe item marketplaces to obtain additional information about at leastone of the indicated available items.
 43. The computer-readable mediumof claim 37 wherein the contents are instructions that when executedcause the computing device to perform the method.
 44. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 37 wherein the computer-readablemedium is a memory of the configured computing device.
 45. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 37 wherein the contents include one ormore data structures for use in facilitating item transactions betweenusers and the item transaction system, the data structure comprisingmultiple entries that each correspond to a user interacting with theitem transaction system and contain information indicating one or moreitems available from the user via the item transaction system to otherusers of the item transaction system.
 46. A computing device configuredto facilitate identification of items to be made available to users,comprising: one or more processors; and a registration manager componentconfigured to, when executed by at least one of the one or moreprocessors, automatically assist multiple selling users in identifyingitems to make available via an item transaction system to buying users,at least some of the selling users and buying users participating intransactions that involve selling items to the item transaction systemand/or purchasing items from the item transaction system, wherein theautomatic assisting of the multiple selling users includes, for each ofone or more of the multiple selling users that have requested tointeract with the item transaction system, determining one or more itemspreviously acquired by the selling user from one or more item sourcesdistinct from the item transaction system; automatically adding at leastone of the determined one or more items to an available item list of theselling user at the item transaction system without obtaining any priorindication of the selling user to perform the adding of the at least onedetermined items, the available item list of the selling user indicatingitems that the selling user is willing to provide to buying users of theitem transaction system; after the automatic adding of the at least onedetermined items to the available item list of the selling user,indicating the at least one determined items to the selling user toenable the selling user to elect to remove one or more of theautomatically added items from the available item list of the sellinguser; and after the indicating of the at least one determined items tothe selling user, receiving an indication from the selling user of oneor more available items that the selling user is willing to provide, atleast one of the indicated one or more available items being one of theat least one determined items that were automatically added to theavailable item list.
 47. The computing device of claim 46 wherein thecomputing device further comprises a transaction manager componentconfigured to facilitate transactions of items by identifying users whodesire items and identifying other users who are able to provide thoseitems.
 48. The computing device of claim 47 wherein the registrationmanager component is further configured to, for each of the one or moreselling users, automatically determine one or more other items torecommend to the selling user to include as items that the selling usermakes available for use in transactions involving the item transactionsystem, the determining being based at least in part on prior activitiesof the selling user with one or more item marketplaces distinct from theitem transaction system, and indicate the recommended one or more otheritems to the selling user.
 49. The computing device of claim 46 whereinthe registration manager component includes software instructions forexecution in memory of the computing device.
 50. The computing device ofclaim 46 wherein the registration manager component consists of meansfor automatically assisting multiple selling users in identifying itemsto make available via an item transaction system to buying users, atleast some of the selling users and buying users participating intransactions that involve selling items to the item transaction systemand/or purchasing items from the item transaction system, wherein theautomatic assisting of the multiple selling users includes, for each ofone or more of the multiple selling users that have requested tointeract with the item transaction system, determining one or more itemspreviously acquired by the selling user from one or more item sourcesdistinct from the item transaction system; automatically adding at leastone of the determined one or more items to an available item list of theselling user at the item transaction system without obtaining any priorindication of the selling user to perform the adding of the at least onedetermined items, the available item list of the selling user indicatingitems that the selling user is willing to provide to buying users of theitem transaction system; after the automatic adding of the at least onedetermined items to the available item list of the selling user,indicating the at least one determined items to the selling user toenable the selling user to elect to remove one or more of theautomatically added items from the available item list of the sellinguser; and after the indicating of the at least one determined items tothe selling user, receiving an indication from the selling user of oneor more available items that the selling user is willing to provide, atleast one of the indicated one or more available items being one of theat least one determined items that were automatically added to theavailable item list.